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The ongoing saga of Leeds United (or should that be Leeds United 2007?) has edged one step closer to a conclusion today. Finally issued their ‘golden share’ from the football league, they are now able to enter the transfer market again, and offer deals to their players on the verge of being out of contract, however, for the price of selling their souls, there is a sting in the tail.

Leeds United, as it stands, will be starting 2007/2008 with a fifteen point penalty, yes, that’s right, -15 points. This is a huge obstacle to overcome – and given that they are already about as attractive to players as leprosy, this will make it all the more difficult for the Yorkshire club to attract players on board to help them out of their plight.

So the preseason favourites (believe it or not!) I think will find it very difficult to avoid relegation this season – a thin squad that they’ll supplement with journeymen and average players will struggle in this league on a level playing field, but factor in their negative start in points terms, they’re screwed. They are appealing (the decision – of course they’re not appealing in the other sense!), but I hope the Football League stand firm.

Of course, the Leeds fans have been dealt an incredibly shabby hand by their owners and the administrators, and whilst I’ve no fondness them at all, I do have an inkling of sympathy for them. Nobody deserves to go through that when they aren’t responsible for it – and to still be stuck with a alleged crook like Ken Bates at the end of it all, that’s real rough justice.

I’m not bitter at all, as I said – I feel the fans of Leeds have been treated appallingly, but I’m pleased the antics of Bates et al has been punished, because frankly if it hadn’t it would have been Leicester City all over again.

On a selfish note it gives us a head start over a fellow league club too, which is no bad thing.

Ok i know not everybody hates Leeds,but do we,the fans deserve to be punished so? We never asked greedy Beardy Bates to drag us down. And yes,Clough is a legend! I even disagreed with his scaking in 70s.

I’m just disillusioned that it just gets worse. Guess Forest will be the bookies favs eh? I just saw the headlinre and reacted. I actually admired forest for years.
Ps. I always wanted us to get John Robertson or Birtles. Who’d have thought he’d end up at man u?
PPS. I was saddened when forest ewent down. That is the truth. I could see Clough saying “Now,young men,get out there and play with no fear. If any of the fans interfere i will slap them!”. (Loved it when he did that!).

Loyal: Thanks for your comments, and I understand your reaction – I wasn’t gloating, well, maybe a bit – but I do seriously understand your dilemma. Whilst our circumstances were not the same as yours, we too suffered for poor financial decisions by our board — we never went into Admin, we sold off our players, we replaced them with shite, and we were relegated (deservedly, I might add).

But anyway, yes – for the Leeds fans, this is about as shite as it can get – but I can’t see what alternative the league had to deal with the very-dodgy-looking machinations of Bates and co.

And Kentish: you’re quite right – I’ve snuck an ‘alleged’ in there just to be on the safe side!

Through this whole sorry saga, one thing that’s been particularly sad has been the response of football fans in general. Apart from all the wheeler dealers who’ve screwed a once great club, what’s really disheartening is that fact that so many fans of so many clubs have gloated at the pain that Leeds fans are going through. The thing is, Leeds fans are no different to Forest fans, and no different to Newcastle or West Ham fans. Some are morons, so are fair weather, but most are loyal and genuine. Putting aside rivalries, which are the life blood of football and add the passion we all feel, when Forest were conquering Europe we were all cheering you on as an English team abroad. When Forest were relegated, it didn’t give us any pleasure. One thing that I thought united football fans was that we’d empathise with each other, as we’ve all been there. I just hope no other team has to go through what Leeds have.

I do empathise for the fans, as I hope I’ve clarified by comments if not in the article – but could the football league really let this dodginess go on without action? I don’t think they could – it would set a very dangerous precident.

I agree the supporters of football clubs are broadly the same (except Derby, maybe). I’ve had many a pleasant pint with Leeds fans, but I do believe something had to be done to stop the owners of football clubs believing they can just wriggle out of their financial obligations and start again.

How Bates has been allowed to retain control is beyond belief. I really hope that you get rid of him and his regime as soon as possible.

Agreed Leeds Fan. A true LUFC fan i can see. Marching on together,and good luck to Forest too. They belong in a bigger league too. I met Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink,and the pillock could not wait to get on the coach. O’Leary,credit to him ordered him back off to sign things and talk to the fans. Waste of time with a mercenary!

I, personally, hoped the league would make a stand. How he managed to buy the club back is beyond me. But as fans we are powerless. It’s only when something like this happens it makes you realise just how powerless you really are…

The problem with the points deduction is that it doesn’t hurt Bates. Just the fans. First offer Bates gets that makes him money, he’ll be off. That’s all we can hope for. It’s going to be a long road back, and in the meantime all the talent we’ve nurtured in the accademy will be lured away to bigger clubs like Chelsea.

Forrst and Leeds know the good times and bad times.
Leeds have been deducted 25 points this past few months.
Is it our fault????
The loyal Leeds fans are louder and angrier ……. we are one of the most disliked English teams
Yet rememeber Liverpool got ALL the English teams banned from Europe
remember and ther BBC love them ………..Hanson bla bla

Indeed – likewise, seeing a side with negative points is just not right – I sincerely hope you get shot of Bates.

I wasn’t expecting this story to be picked up on Leeds news feeds – I must say this isn’t the kind of reaction I would have expected if I knew it would happen – so fair play to you all for your comments.

Given the size and sounds of your likely following next season – let’s hope it can spur on the side like a 12th man. For us it’s always hindered our bunch of wasters!

Ha ha! Great comments there. Elland Road used to be a fortress,now it is an open gateway,heh. I always held forest in regard. I’ll never forget that Trevor Francis header,Champions league final. Hamburg was it? As you said,i just saw a Leeds newsfeed and came here!

Ha! Thanks. Again best wishes to sleeping giant forest. I think Clough is my fav manager ever. He never took no crap. Unique he was. Welll,maybe i liked Revie better lol. We are screwed this season,so i will watch your results.
I only say the old forest cos i am not up to speed on the new. Not some old guy lol. 43!

I am a Forest Fan and have a best mate who is a Leeds fan, I was looking forward to playing Leeds next season, the banter and all that. However for my mate I think this is the final nail in the coffin for him, he’s had enough. To be honest I think the fans of Leeds have been treated very badly indeed. They have paid stupid amounts of cash to watch them fall from grace without anything in return.

As usual it is the fans who have to deal with the shite most that happens behind closed doors. At work, on a Saturday etc etc. I should know I am a forest fan.

It’s not nice seeing your club fall from grace, too be honest I am use to the flack I now get, Keep your chin up Leeds fans, it is not your fault that these so called business men have dismantled your club.

Whitened,nffc has been very reasonable! I just hope the appeal gets the reduction to say,10 points,which is lousy but better. No way will the league do much more. They are making an example of us as a warning to clubs going into admin.

I’m afraid us die hard Forest and Leeds fans are the victims of poor financial mismanagement off the pitch! its not our fault but we take all the shit that’s thrown at us at work and at the games. You will have to get used to the usual chants of ” you’re not famous anymore” as we have. I don’t hate Leeds and would like to see them recover from this, as both our clubs SHOULDN’T BE IN THIS SHIT LEAGUE!. I hope many Leeds fans DON’T mis-read this article above of NFFC, because this site is superb and he always gives a good honest opinion on everything and if u read it properly he’s not having a go! Keep up the good work NFFC! YOU REEEEDDDSSSS!!!

Thanks for the positive comments all you true whites and forest fans. Leeds for mid table obscurity! (I’d bloody settle for that lol).
Best wishes to Forest for the new season. We are gonna need luck,maybe a miracle to even stay up! Great site. I’ll pop in during the season.
Ps. Thanks to the admin who e mailed me.

May i compliment you Capital One for that post. If i have heard some prick say dirty Leeds or gloat at our predicament i have heard a 100. Forest belong where we do,back in the premier league. Bates and Ridsdale will burn in hell for this,with Leeds fans there prodding them!

I have met Ridsdale and he is up his own ass. Bates seems the same. We all had suspicions about the Chelsea connection,but i figured that little get Wise would put fire in them,not lethargy!

Clough is a legend! Lol. He should have been England manager. We would have these prima donnas,just real players afraid of the boss. I always liked your winger Robertson. Looked a fiery little bugger like Wee Billy.

NFFC – Justice is being served, I bet you’re choking on your words aren’t you……minus 15 points and still only 3 points outside the play-offs, they should have made it minus 25 points and made it interesting!

This punishment was a travesty, how can a punishment dealt out by the people who have most to benefit, be seen to be fair???

Thanks to your chairman and the other league chairmen, you have now set a precedence, and I pity any other team that finds itself in the same predicament.

The record books will show that Leeds won the League One title in 2008 despite Mr Mawhinney’s best efforts.

I actually enjoy being hated by the other league clubs coz it unites us and we seem to succeed when it happens. Look at the late 60’s and early 70’s when everyone hated Leeds, we were winning trophies left, right and centre. But when we were doing well in the Champions League and reached the semi’s, everyone was backing us and we became a lot of peoples “next favourite” team, and then look what happened!!!!!

Let’s shut up shop at fortress Elland Road and fuck ‘em all.

As for Bates………he’ll do for me!!! The most hated chairman in charge of the most hated team in the league.

Absolutely nffc, you have to admire what Leeds have achieved so far this season.
But I do wonder if ghost of billy was one of the thousands of fans who deserted their beloved team last season, calling for the managers head?

Absolutely not Mattyboy, I have been going to Leeds since I was a young lad and have been a season ticket holder at Elland for over twenty five years and my 14 year old son has held his season ticket for the last 8 years.

I have personally wrote letters to Mr Bates thanking him for saving my football club, coz although he is a bit of a dodgy geezer, he did step into the breach when no one else wanted to come within a country mile of us. Of course I was upset when we were relegated AGAIN, but it is Ridsdale and O’Leary who are the villains in this sad story, not Venables, not Reid, Not Blackwell and not Wise. I do realise that Mr Bates has not taken on Leeds for love of the club, but he was the one who took the chance.

NFFC, I have indeed read your subsequent back tracking comments, but your original remarks were of a gloating and ill informed nature, and it is these comments that I was ridiculing.

I don’t want to listen to fans of other clubs patronising us and telling us how well we are doing, the rest of the league showed their colours when they voted against us at our appeal, this is Leeds UNITED against the world, just the way we like it.

I’d concede original comments were partially ill-informed, and perhaps even a hint of gloating in there too – but if you’re desperate to be hated by everyone, I’m afraid you’ve not quite achieved it in my case – indeed, the comments between myself and other Leeds fans made me reappraise quite a lot of my original stance – the subsequent form that Leeds have shown has been remarkable.

As I said before, I believe our chairman didn’t actually vote against your appeal – so you can’t even level that at us.

And if you don’t want to listen to what you perceive as patronising comments, then I suppose there’s one obvious way of achieving that!…

I don’t particularly wish you luck, I admire your achievements so far this season though – despite not ‘hating’ Leeds I’m not about to start pretending to like them very much either!

I had information including a list of clubs who didn’t vote against Leeds, we were amongst them, as were many of your fellow Yorkshire clubs – I don’t know whether it is factual or not, just like you don’t know that it isn’t – yet it seems okay for you to state as fact that our chairman along with EVERY other one hates Leeds, fact is, some voted in your favour – I believe ours was one, but as I said before, I can’t prove it.

Your original quote is dredged from months ago, and is selective at best – I still believe that as an organisation it was right to punish Leeds – I have always, including in the original article, acknowledged that from a fans perspective this whole situation is very harsh.

But anyway, it seems mighty churlish to be squabbling over words that are months old – did you dredge out the match report from your visit to the City Ground? Maybe you could find one or two words in there you’d find less displeasing?

I’ll read the rest of these comments later – just want to wish Leeds fans (not including Bates) all the best in joining us in the Championship and heres hoping for another sucssesful relegation for our Neighbours the Rams!! :lol: McAlister I’m sure will take you up this season. The Trickies are split over CC & no-one can say else wise.